To introduce a new word, what is better than a practical demonstration of its use? To introduce the word "camouflage", I showed Alex a black lego-type block before asking him to get out of the room. I placed the block in a corner of the room, on top of a pile of books, the top one being light in colour. I asked Alex to come back in the room and find the block. A quick tour of the room was enough to find it.

I asked him to go out again, and this time I placed the block on top of a dvd player that was also black, no more or less in view than in the other "hiding" place. After coming in the room and inspecting it several times, Alex gave up.

I told him that the object was "camouflaged". He asked me what it means, and I explained that the block is on something of the same colour, which makes it hard to see. With a smile to his lips, he went for another tour of the room and came back with the block.

He asked to hide it for me for find and we took turns camouflaging various objects for the other to find, game which lasted almost twenty minutes.

I would like to do more zoology with Alex and I think I am going to start by telling him about the extrordinary powers of animals, about the way they hide, like the chameleon and its changing colours, the great white shark that is blue like the sea from above and white like the sky from underneath, or like the stick insect that looks like a piece of wood; I think he will be interested.

Before the Summer began I have started embroidering a table mat to make it into a decimal mat with columns for units, tens, hundreds and thousands. Like a lot of projects that I start and never finish, it ended up at the bottom of a drawer until last week.

To reinforce the sounds that Alex learns at school (and to be able to observe his progress, especially check that he is not confused with d and t), I wanted to do an activity of sorting objects by their initial sound with him. I have been collecting small objects for a while, with this purpose in mind, activities about sounds and word composition), and I must say that they have proved to be useful.

I prepared the activity based on the sounds that Alex has been learning at school so far, when I rediscovered the decimal mat I had started embroidering what seems like ages ago. I thought it would be perfect for this activity, and it was.

While unrolling the mat, Alex asked me questions about the embroidered lines; How I did it, and whether he would be able to try. Keeping that in a corner of my mind, I presented the activity to him. He immediately understood what to do and I could clearly see that he liked sorting out the objects. We had: man, marble, dinosaur, die, skateboard, sun, train et tree. When he has finished he asked if I had more objects, because he wanted to carry on!

The activity appealed to him so much that he went to get his mother to show her and asked to keep the mat and the objects for the night. The next morning, I allowed him to take it all to school to show his class.

I wanted to do this activity again with different sounds since he liked it so much but I don't have enough little objects beginning with u, n, k and all the other sounds he has been learning. I would rather avoid using pictures, but I will do it if I have no choice. The miniature objects play an important role, the children love them so much.

The only regret I have about this activity would be that the red consonnants cannot be seen clearly against the mat; I guess I have to find a lightly coloured one next time.

Alex has been going to school for a month and it is a revelation for him. I would never have thought that he would be so interested by sounds and letters. He is constantly asking us: "What does ***** begin with?". If I say something like: "Get on your bed, and mind your head", he will have the fascinated expression that Einstein must have had when he discovered relativity, and will exclaim: "Hey! Bed and head! It rhymes!" I have been telling myself that it must be the effect of having eleven other 4.5 year olds in his class that encourages him to explore the sounds, either that or his teacher is a genius. He learns a new letter approximately every two days, and he has learnt d and t only a few days apart, just like m and n. I am very surprised because his teacher is a Montessorian (altough she doesn't use the complete method in Alex's classroom) and that my training teachers have always said not to introduce two similar sounds at the same time unless the first sound is entirely mastered. However, Alex does not seem to be confused at all.

Every evening he has a page of writing to complete, which he finds excruciating. He only has to write three or four fffs or mmms or ccccs but he comes up with a thousand excuses to delay doing it.

Early one morning, I found him kneeling alone on the floor, a pencil in one hand, a piece of paper in the other. It is unprecedented for him to take this material spontaneously. He never writes or draws. I do not intervene but I observe him without disturbing him. He writes lines and lines of signs that vaguely resemble our alphabet, from top to bottom, left to right in close lines. It is his first ever page of mark making, of "real" writing. He writes to do like us, the grown ups, and he looks very proud when he shows me his feat and asks me to read what he has written. I look at the paper and say: "I am a banana". He rolls on the floor with laughter and snatches the sheet from me to write something else. When he gives it to me, I "read": "I am a chocolate cake and my brother is a strawberry". He rolls on the floor again, goes back to writing, and the game never ends. He knows that I am not really reading but he likes to be taken "seriously". When he approaches his dad with this game, who answers that his writing does not mean anything, that it is not real writing, Alex leaves the paper on the table and goes in the other room to play with cars.

It is difficult to know how to react to children's clumsy attempts but it seems to me that we should keep in mind to always remain spontaneous, at least as often as possible. I was really enthusiastic to see his writing when he wasn't asked to do anything and I think I might have transmitted a bit of my enthusiasm to him by playing this simple game.

I understand that he has no desire at all to write lines of meaningless signs, that is why I attempted something different with him. I gave him a pencil, a piece of paper, an envelope and a stamp, and I proposed that we write an anonymous letter to his mum, very quickly before she comes back home and finds us. He liked the idea very much even though he didn't know what to write. We agreed on a simple message: "I am Gahege, I am a native American" which I helped him write on the letter (we play Native Americans quite a lot at the moment, he has a passion for them). He stuck the stamp on, I wrote the address, and the letter was ready to be posted. All that happened in less than ten minutes. Yes, it is more difficult than writing a line of dddd or eeee, but is it more appealing? What will make him want to write, doing lines or writing secret messages in a flash?

Hi and welcome! My name is Elsa. A certified Montessori assistant, I am passionate about children's learning and alternative methods of education. I am currently pregnant with my first baby and like most new mums, have few expectations and plenty of questions on how best to raise a child. From now on, this blog will not only be about children's learning but also broader questionings about life with small children.